Marketing and Money: Why They Matter, Even For The Techno Utopian Visionary

Walk into a room of techno utopian visionaries – these are people who are excited by stimulating intellectual conversation and understand the power of emerging technology to free ideas from the shackles of ivory towers.

Now mention how important you think marketing and money really are.

Odds are, the room wasn’t happy with your insertion into the conversation. Eyebrows raise, faces become stony, and you are reminded of all the reasons why money is absolutely not a good thing in the eyes of the techno utopian visionary:

People should be working for intrinsic reward, rather than for external compensation. Working for external compensation not only dulls enthusiasm, but it supplants the true reason and corrupts the motivation for enlightened work and exploration.

Marketing convinces us to buy things that we don’t need, and creates attachment to things that aren’t important. It ultimately robbing us of the freedom to choose our own destiny because we’re so tied down with useless stuff that doesn’t really matter.

Consumerism has wreaked enormous destruction over the years and centuries. From human trafficking, to the exploitation of developing nations, to the destruction of entire eco-systems, to the creation of serious physical and mental epidemics like obesity and ADHD.

They’d be happy to continue, but by this point you have probably raised your hands in surrender, right?

Well, not this time.

The Techno Utopian Visionary

The first rule of marketing and communication is that a message or idea has no objective reality, but only the subjective realities of how they are understood by individuals. Further, of all those individuals who might interpret a message or idea, the only interpretation that matters is the interpretation of the target market – whoever the idea or message is meant for.

And so, as a good marketer, my first task is to understand my audience. Who is the techno utopian visionary? What does he or she believe, want, and care about? What drives them?

Here’s my best guess, based on my intuition and gut, conversations I’ve had with others, and vague recollections of a world that I semi-inhabited years ago:

• The TUV is majority but not overwhelmingly male, in his twenties or early thirties.
• The TUV is highly educated and intellectual, tempted by further education, but frustrated with formal education. He pursues intellectual topics for intrinsic reasons – he doesn’t necessarily dislike money, but does think that attaching money to a pursuit devalues it in some way.
• The TUV is a visionary, and is excited by how things could and should be, rather than how they are. At the same time, he is intellectually rigorous, and philosophically inclined – therefore cautious about over-simplification, and prescription of ideas.
• The TUV observes and studies the choices that people make, the beliefs that they hold, the ideas that they find compelling, the actions that they take, and the lives that they lead. The techno utopian visionary oscillates between fascination with these quirks, and frustration with their consequences.
• The TUV likely feels under-appreciated and under-utilized.
• The TUV is likely an intellectual non-conformist, and is probably interested in material that opposes the dominant paradigm.

So marketing’s first rule is to know your audience. Let’s move on to the second rule…

What Does the Techno Utopian Visionary Want?

The second rule of marketing is that you can’t make anybody want anything – all you can do is understand what they already want, align what you’re offering with those needs and desires, and effectively communicate that this is what you have to offer.

In defending money and marketing, I’m basically “selling” marketing – so rather than trying to make anyone want it, which is impossible, let’s explore why it is something that the techno utopian visionary really does want, even if they may not realize it.

Here’s what we easily know that the TUV wants: rigorous and complex ideas, and intellectual stimulation. Let’s face it, there’s not much of that in money or marketing, which are all about stuff you can trade for other stuff, and taking complicated ideas and making them simple, respectively.

But here are some related things that are important to the techno utopian visionary:

Time - Reading books, thinking deep thoughts, and debating those thoughts with other like-minded TUVs takes a lot of time. It’s a lot harder to make time for all of that while scrambling to make ends meet.

Influence - As romantic as the idea of the lone, isolated genius might be, we really all want to have others to share our ideas. The TUV in particular aspires to thought leadership – not a formal position as such, but they do want people to notice and listen.

That’s where money and marketing come in. Time and money are directly related – the less money you have, the more time you have to spend to earn it, and vice versa. Ideally, your passion should be bringing in enough money to fund itself and your lifestyle, which makes it sustainable, and allows you to keep on producing whatever it is that you’re so passionate about. And influence is the same as marketing – packaging your ideas in the ways that are most compelling to your audience, whoever that audience may be.

Money is also important because it is a benchmark of influence, for two reasons. The first is that if people aren’t willing to pay for your ideas, then they might not value it as much as you’d like them to, and that’s a good indicator that you need to step up your game. The second is that people don’t value things that they don’t pay for – just the fact of buying information makes people take it more seriously.

So wait – why the aversion to marketing and money?

Coercion, Manipulation, and Persuasion

I think it comes down to freedom. When our resources are limited, so are our options. When we don’t have money, we aren’t free – and a system divides populations into haves and have-nots is a system that feels inherently wrong. I think this is one of the principle arguments against money.

The same applies to marketing. If I were to hold a gun to your head and instruct you to take an action, I would be robbing you of your freedom by coercing you into the outcome of my choice rather than yours. If I have no gun, but use jujitsu techniques to force you nonetheless, that is still coercion, and a loss of freedom.

By the same token, if I don’t touch you at all, but apply my knowledge of human psychology to twist your arm in much the same way, it isn’t coercion, but it is manipulation, and we intuitively understand that it is much the same thing. This is what people think marketing is – using psychological dirty tricks to manipulate people into spending money they can’t afford to lose on things that they don’t really need or want.

But that is not what marketing is!

Marketing, done properly, is not manipulation. It is persuasion – giving people the information and perspective that they need to see the value that you see. The best marketing, and the most serious and long-term customer relationships, are built on integrity, and genuine interest in the well-being of the customer.

Having Your Cake and Eating It Too

Marketing is fundamental to getting the word out about the ideas that you most care about, and it doesn’t change a thing to use euphemisms like rhetoric or oratory or communication or sharing of ideas – it’s marketing, and the better you do it, the more people will be exposed to your ideas.

Money is fundamental to creating the value that you want to create in a way that is sustainable – that doesn’t take much money, but it does take some. If your ideas are valuable, then I don’t think it’s right to sacrifice time that could be spent developing and promoting them doing mundane things like earning a salary to pay rent because you don’t want to associate money with your ideas.

Money is also important as a benchmark – if you could make a million dollars by asking your followers to buy your book (or product, or text, or subscription, or whatever), then you’re cooking with some really hot ideas! You don’t even have to make that money – give it to charity, or don’t charge your audience anything at all. But at the very least, make enough so that your work is sustainable, and get yourself in a position so that if you wanted to, you could make that money.

Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the definitive marketing training program for small businesses, entrepreneurs, non-marketers, and techno utopian visionary. Visit his site today for a free cheat sheet about Why Guru Strategies for Blog Growth DON’T WORK… and What Does!

photo courtesy of Peasap